There exists a need for law enforcement to be able to stop watercraft for boarding, inspection, and possible arrests and confiscation of contraband. In many jurisdictions, probable cause is not sufficient reason for opening fire on a watercraft and/or an operator of that watercraft. Often, well equipped law enforcement watercrafts are able to go faster than a suspect's watercraft, but without firing of a weapon, it is difficult to force the suspect to slow down and stop for boarding. The issue is further complicated by potential risk to the public should the suspect lose consciousness and the watercraft continues to move as well as the environmental concerns should fluids escape from the watercraft after being shot.
Certain vessels can be stopped by use of prop entanglement systems such as US Coast Guard SNARE as described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,402,894 or US Coast Guard RGES as described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,975,639. Some law enforcement agencies run alongside the suspect's watercraft and shoot the engines of such vessels with specially designed rounds of ammunition that are designed to disable the engine of a vessel. These existing systems and techniques do not work on small personal watercraft such as jet skis with jet drives consisting of an impeller in a tubular housing. Any watercraft lacking an exposed propeller is unaffected by running over existing entanglement systems. Furthermore, in many such watercrafts, the engine is located close to the driver or possibly between the driver's legs making it impossible to shoot at the engine without risking life and limb of the driver or any passengers. There are situations where the operator is unconscious or otherwise incapacitated and the watercraft needs to be stopped without hurting the operator.
With respect to maritime and riverine law enforcement, there exists a problem in not being able to stop certain classes of watercraft such as small personal watercraft, often referred to as jet skis.
What is needed is a system that will stop or slow watercraft that utilize internal impellers for propulsion.